Rogue One What would you change about Rogue One?

[KRYPTON INC.]

I think that the music was serviceable. It was completed very quickly and late into the film's post production though.

 

[Mysteryman]

I would have kept Desplat on and let him finish the score. Giacchino just didn't have enough time to do it justice.

Flesh out some of the characters, namely Cassian and Chirrut. It's alright to have one or two in an ensemble that don't have much depth but there was a lot of interesting stuff going on with those two that should've been explored.

Cut out the unnecessary references. A lot of them made sense and were integral to the story, others were not. In that same vein, I'd do more to camouflage the CG effects on Tarkin and Leia. With Tarkin, he needed to be in the film but not with such blatant closeups. And I didn't need to see Leia at all really. It would've been enough just to see her back or her profile. The inclusion of these elements weren't bad on paper, they just pushed too hard on them on screen.

Desplat had to leave because of scheduling conflicts, couldn't be helped.

 

[JB33]

In terms of the music, I actually love the new Empire theme.

 

[DrCosmic]

I echo the issue with the character development. All that hopping around in the beginning was weak and distracting. Showing Jyn in prison, inexplicably, then cutting to a bunch of other characters and trying to have us care about her anger at Saw 30 minutes later just doesn't work. The movie didn't care about what happened to her since she was a kid, why should I?

I really wanted to feel the deaths of all these characters, but I just couldn't. They didn't have enough in them.

I disagree with the inclusion of an opening crawl. I appreciated them having the 'long ago' but not the crawl to differentiated from the episodes, and I feel it would have been largely wasted as that kind of content was actually shown on screen.

I also would have zoomed out on Tarkin just a bit more. I didn't feel bothered by the CGI as much, but there were times when it was obvious to even me, and I think a little more sparing use of Tarkin would have made sense. At the same time, I do like the fact that he was such a heavy presence there, that the movie didn't dance around him.

I think the struggle of the guy at the door who took so long to put getting the plans out over saving his own life was bad, not that it's not a very human reaction, but at this point, anyone who cares about what's going on with these characters knows what's about to happen. Let it go, man. Cut that struggle in half. Also, makes for a more brutal and efficint vader, imho.

For Jyn, in particular, I would have given her a better character arc overall. I'd have zeroed in on this idea that seeing her dad again gave her hope, seeing him die took it away. So Cassian's showing up with a crew of 'bad' rebels in need of redemption would have hit. For that to work, you have to cut something and give her her growing up years back, we have to see her care about someone, to be a down and out ruffian before she saves the girl in the street in Jedha. A scene on how she ended up in prison wouldn't have been out of place. I'd have filled out Cassian's with at least some moment that shows his transition from shooting his informant in the back to 'I just can't do it' with the sniper rifle. A moment of darkness or regret in Jedha wouldn't have been out of place. For Chirrut, make his chanting more expository about the Force and his philosophy with mysterious allusions to his past.

I'd have given the pilot a great last line, probably a callback to something earlier. I agree having him wear the glasses at some point would have been a nice touch.

I also would have had one member of the team survive. Maybe Cirrut's homeboy, in fact. Force powered blaster rampage, surviving, getting picked up as an injured prisoner of war or something. Someone who can tell the story, so to speak. Maybe going so far as to predict there will be "A New Hope" or something, I dunno.

 

[wampa1]

I'm not going to suggest massive structural changes, even if I do think that a 'Dirty Dozen' style movie was totally the wrong way to go (so much for Rebel 'spies' stealing the plans...).

Instead, my gripes are similar to those I have for the prequels. Disregarding the quality (or lack of, depending on your POV) of the movies, I'd just like things to marry up a little more smoothly. We shouldn't need to be jumping through hoops to try to explain all the little inconsistencies or arbitrary redesigns (AT-ACTs, TIE Strikers, Beige Troopers). Explain why in ANH, there are hardly any Rebels at Yavin when in R1 you have loads of ships and dudes running about all over the place. It's like they got a few things backwards saying "yeah, it would make sense that Mon Mothma would be there" without thinking about the knock-on effect of it making NO SENSE that Mon Mothma isn't there in ANH. And seriously, why is there a blue Mon-Cal Admiral there other than to 'remind' you of Ackbar, as if that matters?

I just wish they'd stop ignoring what was presented in the original movies. They should be embracing it and work around it.

 

[Themanofbat]

Explain why in ANH, there are hardly any Rebels at Yavin when in R1 you have loads of ships and dudes running about all over the place.

Just a casual SW watcher here... but you would think that the lack of Rebels in ANH would be because many of them got shot down in R1... I dunno... Just saying...

 

[wampa1]

Just a casual SW watcher here... but you would think that the lack of Rebels in ANH would be because many of them got shot down in R1... I dunno... Just saying...

Nah, there's still millions of Rebels on Yavin when Mon Mothma gets the news Raddus and other reinforcements have shown up at Scarif.

My own explanation is that as most of the Rebel leaders votes AGAINST going to Scarif, they also voted AGAINST the DS attack in ANH and all left when the DS was approaching, leaving only Leia and a minimal crew to coordinate the attack.

But whichever way you look at it, it's still jumping through hoops to try to explain inconsistencies.

 

[Orba]

Instead, my gripes are similar to those I have for the prequels. Disregarding the quality (or lack of, depending on your POV) of the movies, I'd just like things to marry up a little more smoothly. We shouldn't need to be jumping through hoops to try to explain all the little inconsistencies or arbitrary redesigns (AT-ACTs, TIE Strikers, Beige Troopers). Explain why in ANH, there are hardly any Rebels at Yavin when in R1 you have loads of ships and dudes running about all over the place. It's like they got a few things backwards saying "yeah, it would make sense that Mon Mothma would be there" without thinking about the knock-on effect of it making NO SENSE that Mon Mothma isn't there in ANH. And seriously, why is there a blue Mon-Cal Admiral there other than to 'remind' you of Ackbar, as if that matters?

Actually ANH showed plenty of Rebels who never took part in the Battle of Yavin, just count the number of people in orange in the hall during the medal ceremony.

As for some of the units in R1, there is a question of when would many of them could have been used in the OT, they are mostly used for specialised or non-frontline positions while the units used in the OT tended to be frontline units operating from Star Destroyers. The closest we would get to non-frontline would be Endor, except it was a trap so they were expecting it to become a frontline.

And as for Mon Mothma not being in ANH the simplest explanation is that she (and the other Council members) were only there for the Council meeting, at other times they stay apart to minimise the damage caused if the Empire were to find them.

 

[wampa1]

And as for Mon Mothma not being in ANH the simplest explanation is that she (and the other Council members) were only there for the Council meeting, at other times they stay apart to minimise the damage caused if the Empire were to find them.

Well, I alluded to that in an earlier post when I said most of the rebellion left when the DS was approaching. And then they all come back for the medal ceremony.

I just think that if you were watching ANH immediately after Rogue One (as is the filmmaker's intention) and treating it as a continuation, the first thing you would say is where's Mon Mothma? And that arsey Rebel general? Where are all the cool ships? Why are the no Deathtroopers? etc

Rogue One for me was just a bit too fan-filmy and the more subtle elements of ANH that should have been respected where ignored in favour of vague head-canon ideas formulated over 30+ years.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I think that this is a time I gotta scratch my head at online observation. There were always lots of Rebels at Yavin in ANH. I don't get that criticism at all.

 

[wampa1]

All those senator rebels, the blue X-wing pilots, no U-Wings, no Ghost, no Mon Cals, no Mon Mothma, no General Dude... there are Rebels at Yavin, but all these cool new ones who are in Rogue One are conspicuous by their absence. It IS explainable but shouldn't need to be. That's my point.

 

[TheVileOne]

Film Hulk had this really cool idea where Chirrut Imwe would somehow reach out with the Force and use it to pull the lever down to make the communication connection. So like, he makes his run to the console but he's getting gunned down. With his very last bit of energy he tries to reach out with the Force and it succeeds. Maybe earlier in the film he tries this trick and it doesn't work, but it finally comes through in the end.

Also, if Vader wrecked some of the Rogue One team, I think that would've been awesome. Really sell Vader as a villain rather than the badass you want to see wreck faceless Rebels. I didn't find Vader horrifying at all. The movie gave us cool badass Vader, not bad guy Vader. His one other scene shows him proverbially spanking the film's main antagonist.

 

[wampa1]

Film Hulk had this really cool idea where Chirrut Imwe would somehow reach out with the Force and use it to pull the lever down to make the communication connection. So like, he makes his run to the console but he's getting gunned down. With his very last bit of energy he tries to reach out with the Force and it succeeds. Maybe earlier in the film he tries this trick and it doesn't work, but it finally comes through in the end.

Nah, I prefer the ambiguity of the scene as is.

One thing I DID think would happen was that an old lightsaber would be powered up with Jyn's Khyber crystal.

 

[Rowan222]

^Exactly. And what made Cassian join, what happened when he was six? Why did Bodhi decide to defect? I wish we could've seen Erso talking to him.

OLD as heck quote but THIS THIS THIS!! I feel like there was so much we didnt know about Bodhi and Cassian.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

OLD as heck quote but THIS THIS THIS!! I feel like there was so much we didnt know about Bodhi and Cassian.

I actually thought that was a refreshing change of pace. It made them seem more like regular people rather than the typical "chosen one" style protagonist that the series normally uses. I liked out these were a bunch of common men and women with no special powers or status coming together for their own reasons for the greater good to ultimately change the fate of the galaxy. Luke Skywalker wouldn't be Luke Skywalker without the sacrifices of these regular joes.

 

[Rowan222]

I actually thought that was a refreshing change of pace. It made them seem more like regular people rather than the typical "chosen one" style protagonist that the series normally uses. I liked out these were a bunch of common men and women with no special powers or status coming together for their own reasons for the greater good to ultimately change the fate of the galaxy. Luke Skywalker wouldn't be Luke Skywalker without the sacrifices of these regular joes.

Thats a very good point.

 

[Brother Jack]

I actually thought that was a refreshing change of pace. It made them seem more like regular people rather than the typical "chosen one" style protagonist that the series normally uses. I liked out these were a bunch of common men and women with no special powers or status coming together for their own reasons for the greater good to ultimately change the fate of the galaxy. Luke Skywalker wouldn't be Luke Skywalker without the sacrifices of these regular joes.

You can develop a character's backstory without removing their normality. With Bodhi in particular, they missed out on showing the thought process behind someone who defects and betrays the Empire. All it would've taken was one or two scenes of all the characters talking to each other, getting into why they got to where they are and why they're in the fight. It would have made a big difference, hopefully making their collective decision to engage in a suicide mission feel earned.

 

[moreorless]

The issue with a lot of the character buildup for me is that this isn't what modern audiences have come to expect being rather more subtle and benefits from multiple viewings. After the opening scene for example pretty much all the character building around Jyn until she meets Saw is based on wordless reaction shots. I actually think it ends up being a very character focused film up until the big battle at the end, pretty much everything we see happen has some relation to a character rather than just being action for its own sake.

Things I'd change...

Add in a scene or two showing Jyn's travel being being busted out of prison and Yavin. Show a bit more of her touchy relation with the rebels maybe staring down the guys she beat up on the transport as well as simply having a more atmospheric introduce to Yavin. Felt a bit cheap just turning up there for a film that otherwise built all its locations up.

Show some kind of flashback to Galen with Bodhi is being interrogated by Bor Gulet, maybe make it a lot of random and hard to understand stuff to relate to his mental state so as not to give away too much.

Play up the confrontation between Jyn and Krennic a bit more. Granted I don't think this was really a revenge film and was IMHO better for not going down the easy path of doing that but still I think we could have seen a bit more. Maybe change things around so Jyn starts the message sending and then gets shot in the back by Krennic giving him a similar defient speech whilst fatally injuried before Cassian shoots him and then do a similar beach scene.

 

[Grootster]

It's honestly a pretty small nitpick for me, but I would have liked to have seen the formatting of the movie played with even more. I liked the lack of opening-crawl and the planet names appearing on-screen, but I thought the end credits felt too familiar. I would have liked to hear a song over the credits, or maybe an after-credits scene.

 

[Khaos]

I kind of feel like this is the 3rd or 4th Star Wars movie that's pretty much about the same thing. I would make it not to be.

 

[35balin]

I would put back some of these scenes which were seen in trailers and TV spots, but not in the Rogue One... Some of them look really interesting:

https://youtu.be/5tAJhH2_uZE